A Marketo channel is the type of marketing activity (e.g. webinar, seminar, tradeshow, email newsletter, nurture campaign) you will be conducting with Marketo. A channel is not always a lead source – it should be a marketing activity. You can use a Marketo channel as a filter in reporting (e.g. filter on Webinars vs Seminars).
How to Decide What to Make a Channel
- Think of a channel as a specific marketing activity, describing what kind of program you will be running.
- Think about the way you want to measure the program, what is success.
- If you have two similar activities and want to have two different types of success, you may want two channels, e.g. two in person events…Roadshow (success = registered or attended) versus Lunch and Learn (success = attended).
- If you have two similar activities with the same types of success, you can use the program name or tag to filter between the two instead of creating two channels.
- Think about how you want to report and sort on the data before you create your channels. I recommend less channels the better.
- e.g. Roadshows vs Seminars
- Consider how you want to filter your programs in RCE using Program Channel, Program Name and Tags when you decide on your channels.
- To reduce confusion and accidentally using the incorrect channel it is best practice to create only the channels necessary.
Recommended Channels if you do these activities
Marketing Activity | Marketo Program Type | Marketo Channel | Feature |
Email Newsletter, Email Product Announcement | Email | Email Send | Easiest way to run an A/B test. Use this channel even when using a smart campaign to send the email. |
List Purchase, Import List | Default | List Import | |
Online Advertising | Default | Online Advertising | |
Operational (Data management programs like scoring) | Default | Operational | |
Nurture | Engagement | Nurture | |
Seminar, Lunch & Learns and Roadshows | Event | Seminar | On-site check-in with mobile app |
Web (Contact Us, Subscription, Gated and Un-Gated Content) | Default | Web | |
Webinar | Event | Webinar | Integration with Marketo’s webinar partners |
Tradeshow | Event | Tradeshow | On-site check-in with mobile app |
Channel Definitions
List Import - Records acquired from a third party. It is important to track the acquisition of these records so you can measure the ROI of the record. By using a List Import channel you can also see how many new names were acquired so you can ask the vendor for a credit for names you already own.
Seminar – If you hold different types of seminars consider using the same channel. You can use tags or the program name to differentiate between the different types in reporting. For example, you can use tags to differentiate between Lunch and Learn Seminars vs Roadshow Seminars.
Online Advertising - Web ads (e.g. banner ads) on different websites promoting your company or content which lead to a gated form on your website.
Link to Channel / Program Status Best Practices article.
Link to Checklist for Attribution Reporting.
.png)